LAMP Weekly Mix #146 feat. Bezem
LAMP Weekly Mix #146 feat. Bezem
We receive recommendations from our friends, family and peers to check out artists work on a daily basis, and we are usually not lead astray, so thank you! Today follows that same story line. Our close friend and past Guest Mix alum Greco shot over some links and some tracks from today's guests Bezem and it didn't take long for us to get behind the music. A few short exchanges on the interwebs later and we've got ourselves a fantastic mixtape stacked full of new and classic jams and capped off with a forthcoming release of their own.Max & Joel aka Bezem are an Amsterdam based duo that have been working on several projects over the course of the last few years. Recently they found a sound and production style that really spoke to their personal eclectic tastes and decided to create this latest project.MR PUZL: Welcome to the LAMP Weekly Mix series! Our mutual friend Greco first introduced me to your music and we at the label were quick to jump at this opportunity to host you guys. Tell us how you guys first met and bit about your project Bezem.Bezem: Thanks for having us! Bezem is a project that we started around a year ago. Before that we were experimenting a lot with different styles, mainly focussing on the underground scene of electronic music. Listening to artists like Head High, DJ HAUS and labels like SlapFunk we started to develop a certain love for power/utrecht kind of house music. Max has played the drums for 7 years in his teens, he always had a love for percussions and you could hear that a lot in the tracks he produced. At one point these aspects came together and we decided to start Bezem. MP: From my Dutch upbringing I remember ‘bezem’ roughly translating to broom. Is that accurate? How did you come up with your name?Bezem: That is exactly what it means. A broom fits with our music, because we wipe the whole venue with it, haha! We wanted a name which was short, easy to pronounce and not that serious. MP: Every group, duo, partnership etc. is different when it comes to working on music and playing gigs together. How do you guys usually work on the studio? For gigs do you guys spend some time together picking tracks or is it more of a free for all and just vibing off each other’s track selections?Bezem: I think we have a different kind of way we work then most duo's. Max is doing all of the studio work and Joël is the walking music library. He’s responsible for most of the track selection when making the podcasts and preparing our gigs, while Max is creating new productions to distinguish us from the others. That doesn't mean we don't work together. We sit together at least once a week to listen to eachothers work and give out oppinions about it.MP: Growing up in the Netherlands you’re obviously aware of the massive amount of talent that your country has produced over the year across all spectrums of music, especially in the dance and electronic movements of the past few decades. Who were some of your idols growing up? Do you feel those people influenced your decisions to become producers and DJ?Bezem: We actually just found out that we both listened to DJ Tiesto back in the days, haha. He was one of our first introductions to electronic music in our very early teens. Tracks like lethal industry and adagio for strings rocked our 12y/o worlds. When we started clubbing at 15/16 y/o we got introduced to DJ’s like Erik E, Roog and Real el Canario. I think those experiences are at the base of why we started Bezem.MP: On that note what sort of styles of music fit with what Bezem represents when playing a show or producing a track? Do you have any guilty pleasure tracks you look to play out?Bezem: We listen to hip-hop a lot. It’s a huge inspiration in the creation of our music. Especially the 90’s eastcoast/westcoast hiphop. We try to use samples of it in our productions and we have a couple of remixes in our track collection which we really like to play.We also got a big weakness for disco. Tracks as Dan Hartman’s “relight my fire” and Workidz “street sounds” (Bucketheads - the bomb) are definitly some guilty pleasures.MP: Let’s talk about your mix, it’s awesome! What have you got in store for our listeners?Bezem: Thanks man! It is a whole lot of bouncy tracks that we love the most at the moment. You will hear some UK house stuff, but also the sweet Ibiza vibes to end it with a Unreleased production of ours.The style that you hear in our mixes changes every single time a little bit. We keep on changing and improving, what we think is a good thing. Trying to make yourself better and better and do what feels best. MP: Amsterdam is a beautiful city with so much to offer in it’s incredible history, culture and the arts. A lot of uninformed, and ignorant people see it purely for the publicity behind smoke shops and the red light district. What does the city mean to you, and why have you chosen to call it home?Bezem: This is very true. We both have worked a lot with tourist past summer and just like you said, there are way to much drug-tourists in Amsterdam at the moment. And of course this is something what belongs to Amsterdam, but it’s getting really out of hand the last couple of years... We still got much love for the city. Now living there on our own is a dream. Still the best city in the world for us.MP: If some friends came to visit you and have never been to the city before how would you show them around? What are some go-to late night spots that cater to house and techno crowds.Bezem: We would still take them to red light district and some coffee shops, but only for a few hours. Probably would take them for a walk through the city and drinking a few beers somewhere on a terrace outside of the center. We both work(ed) at a boat rental so we would take them on the city canals for a tour. At night time there a so many options for everyone, but if you want quality techno or (deep) house De School, RADION and the just opened Shelter are the places to be. Enjoying the music till early in the morning with crazy (in a good way) people is amazing.MP: ADE is only a few days away, are you guys excited? Who are you most looking forward to seeing? Will you be playing any shows of your own during the event?Bezem: Ohh man months ago already, we think everybody in the city is buzzing about it. Max needs to work as a stage manager/artist handler at RADION for 3 nights so he won’t be able to visit a lot. Joël is going to DGTL on Friday for the Paradise party with the boss Jamie Jones. And on Saturday we both will be at the Rawsome x Vaarwel boat party from our friend Greco of course. Sunday we probably will see the legend Theo Parrish all night at RADION. vibin’ to some quality house records until the early hours. It's gonna' be sick!
Tracklist
1. Yaleesa Hall x Malin - Third Lucas 2. Will Monotone - Sunshine & Rain 3. Mandoline - Upfront the Bass 4. Burnski - Lost In The Zoo (The Martinez Brothers' Bronx Zoo Mix)5. Emmanuel Jal - Kuar (Henrik Schwarz remix) 6. wAFF - Flipback Karizma ft DJ Spen - 4 The Love7. Brett Johnson - Breathe w/ Makam Struggles8. Mall Grab - I've Always Liked Grime9. Shaf Huse - Mavado10. Little By Little - FM Core11. Luss & Bendall - Industrial Funk12. Locklead - Diversity13. Lone - Restless City (Head High Remix)14. Bezem - ???????